Netflix's Godzilla: The Planet EaterReview

The Planet Eater, the third and last entry in the animated Godzilla trilogy released on Netflix in North America and in theaters internationally, is much better than the previous two frustrating installments, which were difficult to connect with both emotionally and viscerally. I reviewed both previous films and while I found Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters' biggest selling point to be its fresh take on the titular creature, I deemed its followup Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle a "huge failure." Getting through the first two films may have felt like a chore, but The Planet Eater offers an emotional payoff and makes the trilogy as a whole much better when viewed as the conclusion of a single, ambitious longform story.

The Planet Eater follows protagonist Haruo Sakaki in his third face-off against kaiju, after meeting Godzilla on Earth in Planet of the Monsters and then luring him to the city-sized Mecha Godzilla facility for a showdown in City on the Edge of Battle. As teased in the post-credits sting of the second film, King Ghidorah appears here to confront Godzilla Earth in a final battle. Drawn with geometric CG and golden in color, King Ghidorah arrives to the roaring sound of thunder, bringing a sense of awe and intensity befitting his godlike status. More of this visually rich show-don’t-tell approach would have made the appearance of Godzilla in the two previous films much more exciting.

Godzilla: The Planet Eater Gallery

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Godzilla: The Planet Eater premieres on Netflix January 09, 2019

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Godzilla: The Planet Eater premieres on Netflix January 09, 2019

Godzilla: The Planet Eater Gallery

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While there’s still not a lot of kaiju action in this final chapter, Godzilla thankfully gets a little more screen time here in what’s been a largely talky series. The previous two installments omitted the kinds of scenes that fans of kaiju movies and Godzilla movies would expect – the wrestling bouts between gigantic monsters. While the lack of monster-on-monster action in this series remains a disappointment, the despair that pervades The Planet Eater is another important element in the best Godzilla movies. For all this seemingly boundless pessimism, though, The Planet Eater does at least propose the value in appreciating what we already have.

The Planet Eater boils down the essence of Godzilla movies to a metaphysical dialogue on monsters as it explores its themes of humanity and survival. It asks: What is the point in fighting a creature such as Godzilla, rather than simply accepting it and living alongside it? What is survival really worth? What is the meaning of civilization, and the damage it can cause? I hadn't expected this kind of philosophical thinking from a Godzilla anime movie series, but with this final film the saga’s overall thematic aims came into sharper focus.

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When taken as a whole, the trilogy also poses an interesting commentary on doctrines of mind control. In the first film, Haruo commits to military action and his people follow without question. The second film portrays a totalitarian state where the machine and the self are integrated. In this third film, the weary survivors turn to religion and form a death cult, which leads to a thrilling thread of human drama that could not have worked without the costly strategic failures that played out in the previous two films. It’s a long trek through three films to reach this payoff, but when it does arrive it is gripping.

It’s important to remember that the original Godzilla was not concerned with the future but with the past. Released in 1954, the king of monsters was unleashed on postwar Japan to prevent us from forgetting the atrocities we tried to put behind us, from atomic bombings to those lost in battle. In this animated Godzilla trilogy, the echoes of this message can be heard. Haruo certainly resembles Dr Daisuke Serizawa, the character in the original movie who comes to fear the weapon of mass destruction that he himself had created. But Haruo is an even more wretched character than Dr Serizawa because his cause is based on selfish reasons.

A Visual History of Godzilla

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The first appearance of Godzilla in 1954 set the basic look and tone for all future Godzilla films, with one major exception. This Godzilla has crazy eyes, the kind of eyes you'd expect to see on a radioactive city-stomping monster.

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The first appearance of Godzilla in 1954 set the basic look and tone for all future Godzilla films, with one major exception. This Godzilla has crazy eyes, the kind of eyes you'd expect to see on a radioactive city-stomping monster.

A Visual History of Godzilla

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The saga’s endless bleakness, and its distrust of humanity in general, made the characters of the previous two films feel unrelatable. The damaged, tragic Haruo is a character driven by mindless obsession, thrashing around in vain. As a result of his actions, a great many of his comrades are dead. Even heading into The Planet Eater, his compulsion to defeat Godzilla does not make him seem heroic – he behaves like an automaton, just another cog in the machine.

Being so impenetrable had made Haruo a difficult character to relate to, but thankfully there’s an emotional satisfaction to be found by the end of this film. Haruo’s behavior now all seems by storytelling design, making the lack of sympathy for him thus far feel less like a huge fault and more like a major highlight of these animated films. This had-to-define, complicated, bitter flavor is the essence of the best Godzilla movies, and The Planet Eater offers this in spades. While it took awhile to get there, the animated Godzilla trilogy ends with a fascinating chapter that – while unexpected – is worthy of the franchise.

Naoya Fujita is a freelance writer for IGN Japan.

The Verdict

The three chapters of this animated Godzilla saga -- where the titular monster has sadly played second fiddle throughout -- gets a strong, more emotional payoff in The Planet Eater. It may have been a long and uneven journey but The Planet Eater ultimately makes it all one worth taking for Godzilla fans.